February 17, 2024

E-News: Property-tax threat goes away, but threat to rural health care remains

  I was happy to welcome members of Teamsters 117, which represents Department of Corrections employees, when they came over from Walla Walla to visit the Capitol earlier this month. In response to the question “Who has been assaulted on the job?” probably half raised their hands. Feedback like this...
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February 09, 2024

Property-tax bill is ‘dead,’ 16th District senator says it never should have been filed

OLYMPIA…Sen. Perry Dozier, R-Waitsburg, offered this comment after learning majority Democrats in the Senate are dropping their proposal to allow local governments to raise property taxes by up to 3% annually without a vote of the people. Dozier was among the Senate Republicans and members of the public who opposed...
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January 29, 2024

E-News — People to Legislature: Consider six policy changes…this session

  Chief Rocky Eastman headed the delegation from Walla Walla Fire District #4 that came by this past week. If you expect to be anywhere near the state Capitol between now and the March 7 end of this year’s session, I hope you will contact my office and arrange to...
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January 23, 2024

Dozier asks for committee hearing on parental-rights initiative

OLYMPIA… Under Washington’s constitution, initiatives to the Legislature are to have precedence over all other measures before lawmakers except spending bills. Sen. Perry Dozier today added an exclamation mark to that requirement by formally asking the chair of the Senate’s K-12 education committee to hold a hearing on Initiative 2081...
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January 13, 2024

E-News: Session begins… and so has talk of tax increases

Dear Neighbors, Greetings from the state Capitol! Our 2024 session began at noon a week ago with a combination of ceremony and housekeeping. Although it’s my fourth session as your 16th District state senator, I can’t imagine that the opening-day traditions will ever get old — and as a member...
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December 22, 2023

E-News: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I’ll keep this brief, knowing what a busy time of year it can be. The next legislative session begins two weeks from Christmas Day. If you have any ideas for legislation, please get them to me using the contact information in this message. I’ve “prefiled” two bills for the 2024...
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December 01, 2023

Update from Olympia: Our pro-agriculture agenda, and more on carbon-law situation

Dear Neighbor, Greetings from the state Capitol! Even though the “interim” period between legislative sessions won’t officially be over until January 8, when the 2024 session begins, it unofficially ended for me with the Thanksgiving holiday (I hope yours was a happy one). Between an all-day Senate Republican meeting on...
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October 05, 2023

Senator says Ecology must be open about program driving up fuel prices

OLYMPIA… While raking in more than $1 billion from the carbon-pricing program that is behind Washington’s crushingly high fuel prices, the state Department of Ecology isn’t being fully open about who is buying and holding the carbon credits. A state senator says that has to change. The state’s Climate Commitment...
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September 26, 2023

E-News: Mid-interim update on fuel prices, ag issues, parents’ rights and more

September 2023 Dear Neighbor, Greetings from here at the ranch! Legislators refer to the months between our annual sessions as “interim,” and if you look at when the 2023 session ended (late April) and when the 2024 session begins (early January), we’re not much past the halfway point of this...
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